The present invention concerns methods and compositions useful for the treatment of airway diseases such as asthma.
Asthma is one of the most common diseases in industrialized countries, and in the United states accounts for about 1% of all health care costs (K. Weiss et al., New Eng. J. Med. 326, 862-866 (1992)). An alarming increase in both the prevalence and mortality of asthma over the past decade has been reported (Asthma-United States, 1980-1990, MMWR 41, 733-735 (1992)), and occupational asthma is predicted to be the preeminent occupational lung disease in the near future (M. Chan-Yeung and J. Malo European Resp. J. 7, 346-371 (1994)).
PCT Application WO96/40266 to Nyce (Dec. 19, 1996) describes a method of reducing bronchoconstriction in a subject such as an asthma patient by administering an A1 or A3 adenosine receptor antisense oligonucleotide.
PCT Application WO96/40162 to Nyce (Dec. 19, 1996)(see also U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,315) describes a method of treating airway disease in a subject by administering an antisense oligonucleotide, particularly certain adenosine receptor antisense oligonucleotides.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,932,557 to Mustafa et al. concerns adenosine A1 antisense oligonucleotides in the treatment of alcohol and marijuana-induced psychomotor impairments.
There remains a need for new methods and compositions for the treatment of asthma, as well as other airway diseases.
A first aspect of the invention is a method of treating an airway disease (including inflammation with and without asthma) such as asthma in a subject in need of such treatment, comprising concurrently administering to the subject an A3 adenosine receptor antagonist and an A2B adenosine receptor antagonist (either separately or in a single molecule or composition having both receptor blocking activities), in an amount effective to treat said disease.
A second aspect of the present invention is a composition useful for treating an airway disease in a subject in need of such treatment, comprising, in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, an A3 adenosine receptor antagonist and an A2B adenosine receptor antagonist, together in an amount effective to treat said disease.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method and composition for treating an airway disease. This and other objects are achieved in whole or in part by the present invention.
The foregoing and other objects and aspects of the present invention are explained in greater detail in the specification below.